I'm the guy who tells you there are
guys you hit and there are guys you
don't. That's not quite a guy you
can't hit, but it's almost a guy
you can't hit, so I'm fucking
ruling on it right now that you
don't hit him, understand? - MISTER FRENCH, "The Departed"
Oh, it's so sad. Because of our beligerent ignorant attitude towards "El Mundo de Tango Blogging", we spent the entire week as "Tango Blogger Pariahs" - we go to a milonga, and everybody ignores us! We tried to say hello, but everyone turned away! No one will dance with Man Yung despite all his pleas on bended knees! All the special people of the milonga, from the world famous teachers and tango hot-shots to the lowest of the lowliest beginner all shunning us! Even the organizers of our favourite milonga could do nothing now that we have incurred "The Wrath of El Mundo de Tango Blogging" - forget about being seated in the hall, how's about a cosy seat next to the urinals? For our "Tango Sins", we finally get our just deserts - a little taste of Medieval "Tango Excommunication", anyone?
While I'm sure there's many out there rubbing their hands in glee - sorry to bust your bubble, but what I just wrote was completely untrue. We went to the milonga, said hello to everyone we wanted to say hello to - even the VIPs, and although many must be so disappointed, our friends didn't stop being our friends - ignored people we wanted to ignore, and had a great time dancing together and with others to great music and catching up with everything that has been happening over the past few weeks in Toronto. So much for being evil, hated "nobodies", and "Oh, my gosh, how dare you!" critics of GRICEL!
This moniker has been thrown around lately, and it's got us scratching our heads. "Tango Police" - nice actually, because "El Mundo de Tango" kind of needs this kind of public service lately, like the fashion world usually benefits from those who would act as "Fashion Police". Without the efforts of the "Fashion Police", everyone would be wearing off-shoulder oversized t-shirts over tight neon spandex bicycle shorts to work, and white socks with sandals to swanky restaurants.
Unfortunately, we cannot claim to be ever important and necessary "Tango Police". If we were, we would be standing at the door of all the Toronto milongas with tasers, zapping everyone who was not dancing exactly the way we would want them to dance. Alas, we really don't care to moderate how anyone dances - whether they are dancing badly or well, traditional or nuevo (yes, we're fine with people dancing nuevo - shock and outrage!) - so long they are not recklessly colliding into everyone, gouging people with their stilettos and heels and creating a hazard on the "pista". Please, continue to do what you are doing if you are enjoying yourself, why not? Irene and Man Yung are not your "mamas".
However, what is disturbing to us is that some "devoted" readers (why, why, if you hate us so much, do you read this blog anyway?) of this very self-same blog have appointed themselves "Tango Blogger Police". According to these illustrious individuals, Irene and Man Yung are not permitted to write honestly about their own, personal experiences or their own personal opinions. According to the TBP, Irene and Man Yung should shut the fuck up, because 1) they live in Toronto, not Buenos Aires, 2) they're Chinese (as opposed to Japanese or Caucasian or from Argentina, because this seems to be some of the criteria for Tango relevancy) , and 3) they aren't teachers, tango professionals or tango performers, so they must suck at Tango, and anyone that suck at Tango must defer to the opinions of those who either live in Buenos Aires, teach, perform or do anything to do with Tango professionally.
Who are you to tell us what to write, and to intimidate us by telling us to "be careful" or not to speak because we're supposedly "outsiders" etc.? Instead of contesting us fact by fact and making lucid, rational arguments to counter us, we get a whole crapload of insulting generalizations about us as the basis of why we should self-censor. Make all the rulings you like about the "guys" we can "hit" and the "guys" we "can't". Tango Blogger Police indeed - How about Tango Blogger "Mafia"?
One nice positive thing about being "Tango Blogger Pariahs" is that without having to spend a single cent or going through intensive interview and candidate selection processes, you can get other tango bloggers to be the clearing house of negative comments about you! If you don't believe us, go check out the blog of "Ms Tango in Her Eyes" - instead of commenting directly to us, you can log onto her blog anyday, lots of people are writing to her about us right now! From now on, all anonymous comments and all negative comments about our posts can be directed c/o of her. Awwww, thanks for all the free publicity and for providing a nice safe forum for people to criticize us and vent, you don't know how much we appreciate it!
6 comments:
Dear Joli,
Please try and READ carefully what we write in our post before commenting. No, neither your efforts or our efforts did anything at all to create any sort of "Tango Pariahship" for us. In fact, we are further from "Tango Pariahship" that you can even possibly imagine. What we were doing in our post was quite possibly SATIRICAL. Maybe that's a notion that's quite beyond you... but then, you take yourself so seriously, it may be quite impossible for you to understand the meaning of SATIRE?
Irene and Man Yung
Dear Irene and Man Yung,
I know you from our emails for the past year. I know you personally because we went to several milongas together during your recent visit. I know how much you both love tango music and the dance. I know how much you respect your teachers. I know that your motives in writing are not to cause harm to anyone's reputation, but for the purpose of sharing your personal experiences with those who want to read them.
I read your account of Gricel as a report of your experience. Those who don't know you have read it as an attack and harsh criticism because you named names. They will think whatever they want to about it.
It's sad that foreigners who have lived in Argentina for four or five years consider themselves experts on the codes of tango, the milonga, and the milongueros. They wave their fingers at you for not knowing how things are here. That is their only amunition against you because you are tourists who visit for three weeks annually. They, on the other hand, live here and know more than you do. That's why they are the self-appointed tango police licensed to attack you on their blogs. I have taken shots from them as well.
I enjoyed every minute of our time together in Lo de Celia and the clubes de barrio. The vals tandas with Man Yung were wonderful.
Yours is the ONLY blog I read regularly. I love your wit in bringing our focus to the many idiotic situations that occur in the tiny world of tango. I look forward to reading your posts and seeing you again during your visit next year.
Janis
a devoted reader
The Tango world is tough..real tough! I enjoy reading your blog a lot and I hope that you keep on dishing it out exactly as you experience it. Don't pull no punches for any reason, please.
I know how withering the put-down and hate can be. I too am a Tango media star (the famous Mario) and I just hope that I don't get a bullet in the head at some Milonga or Practica. Mario
The Tango world is tough..real tough! I enjoy reading your blog a lot and I hope that you keep on dishing it out exactly as you experience it. Don't pull no punches for any reason, please.
I know how withering the put-down and hate can be. I too am a Tango media star and I just hope that I don't get a bullet in the head at some Milonga or Practica. Mario
Dear Janis,
Thanks for your support and for enjoying our blog. We had a wonderful time with you in Buenos Aires. Man Yung insists on going by himself to Buenos Aires this Christmas just so he can dance with you again ;-)
Kidding aside, we are really planning for our next trip in 2010. With realty taxes in Villa Urquiza slated to go up THREE HUNDRED PERCENT (OR PERHAPS EVEN MORE) we better start saving our pennies now! We also better start studying bus routes, because with the taxis starting the meter at 4.10 pesos instead of 3.80 pesos - we need all the money we can save to buy empanadas - not quite 70 centavos last year (we have the receipts to prove it), but think about it, they were 70 centavos at least five years ago!
OK, we'll stop kidding now.
Irene and Man Yung
Dear Mario,
Thank you for your comment! We agree that like you, we are no strangers to a good old internet "flaming" just for speaking our minds. People have too many illusions about themselves out there - and they don't like it when we bust their bubble. Mario, as for reprisals - El Mundo de Tango is too filled with chickenshit. People are afraid of their own shadows. You are more likely to be eviscerated accidentally by an errant boleo than an intentional bullet in the head by a tanguero with a grudge. It's no longer like the old days anymore, when people really meant business and also had the guts (and the spine) to dance well!
Irene and Man Yung
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